Potential Analysis of Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems for Self-Sufficient Residential Use in Germany and the Czech Republic

Abstract

Independence from the power grid can be pursued by achieving total self-sufficient electricity supply. Such an energy supply model might be particularly interesting for settlements located in rural areas where enough space is available for energy generation installations. This article evaluates how and at what cost electricity demand of residential users across Germany and the Czech Republic could be covered by hybrid renewable energy generation systems consisting of photovoltaics, micro-generation wind turbines and batteries. High-resolution reanalysis data are used to calculate necessary system sizes over a large area by simultaneously accounting for the temporal variability of renewable energy. For every potential location in the research area, the hybrid system requirements for clusters of 50 self-sufficient single-family houses are calculated. The results indicate no general trend regarding the size of the respective technologies, although larger areas where PV-wind power complementarity enables lowering the total system costs and required storage capacities were determined. Assuming that the cluster of households could be constituted and depending on the location, the total installation and operation costs for the proposed systems for a lifetime of 20 years range between EUR 1.8 Million and EUR 5 Million without considering costs of financing. Regions with the lowest costs were identified mainly in the south of Germany.

A spatially explicit assessment of middle and low voltage grid requirements in Bavaria until 2050

“…Selfsufficiency is an approach, which can be applied to different electrical system sizes. It can either include a whole village, a neighbourhood or single family houses but the installed capacity requirements are the key element to be taken into consideration mainly if self-sufficiency is anticipated using only renewable energy sources (Ramirez Camargo et al 2019). Therefore, especially when planning for the future, the price of maintenance and development of the grid should be compared to the price of promotion and installation measures that would allow a self-sufficient energy supply.…”

Multivariate Analysis of a Wind–PV-Based Water Pumping Hybrid System for Irrigation Purposes

“…The optimal solution according to this indicator can reduce the cost of energy. The introduction of WT in the HRES located in Germany and the Czech Republic is favorable, especially for higher latitudes [15]. A multi-objective optimization tool, named HYRES (Hybrid Renewable Energy System) is presented in [16], showing better results than the HOMER software.…”

Implementing a Just Renewable Energy Transition: Policy Advice for Transposing the New European Rules for Renewable Energy Communities

“…The many benefits of complementarity include improved grid stability (Xinshuo Zhang et al, 2018), increased network capacity to integrate variable renewable power (Sun and Harrison, 2019), and reduced system costs for energy storage (Ramirez Camargo et al, 2019a). Prioritizing complementarity serves to decrease not only required RE generation capacity, but also the storage and backup requirements.…”

“…Prioritizing complementarity serves to decrease not only required RE generation capacity, but also the storage and backup requirements. This holds for clusters scaled at residential levels (Ramirez Camargo et al, 2019a), for industrial consumers with a constant demand (Ramirez Camargo et al, 2019b), and for entire countries (Schmidt et al, 2016). Further optimization can occur when energy systems address heat, cooling, transport and electricity demand jointly.…”